Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
More children were murdered in their school last week.
Covenant School, Nashville, Tennessee – 6 dead, 1 injured.
That was followed by the usual flood of tearful “thoughts and prayers;” feverish speculation about who the culprit might be; more tragic pictures of schoolchildren getting scurried to safety; and Republicans and Democrats speaking past each other.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
That bloody, tear-filled cycle is destined to happen again. Perhaps within days.
America is the world leader in so many areas. Americans cured polio. Americans were the first to hoist a human into space, then onward to the moon. Americans created the internet and most forms of mass communication.
The one area America doesn’t seem to be very good at is protecting our littlest citizens from gun violence.
(April 16, 2007 – Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia – 33 dead, 23 injured)
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Firearms have become the leading cause of childhood deaths in America. Not only that, since 2000, more children have died from gun violence, than America’s troops in battle. (31,000 to 7,000 – verifythis.com)
(Dec. 14, 2012 – Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut – 27 dead, 2 injured)
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Democrats are holding firm on wanting more background checks, and assault weapons bans as solutions to the problem.
Republicans call anything the Democrats propose “a gun grab.”
Instead, Republicans have proposed arming teachers. They also speak freely about the problem being about mental health challenges.
(April 20, 1999 – Columbine High School, Columbine, Colorado – 15 dead, 21 injured)
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Republicans, too, want to make sure the nation’s children are saved from seeing men wearing skirts, and books that mention slavery, or the residue of it.
But they don’t seem to be the least bit concerned about schools that are within range of madmen, or madwomen, readying to fire their assault weapons.
(Feb. 14, 2018, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Florida – 17 dead, 17 injured)
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Republicans might do whatever they can to prevent a transgender athlete from competing on girls’ basketball teams.
They’ll ignore requests to sit down and try to find bipartisan solutions to help save children’s lives.
(May 18, 2018, Santa Fe High School, Santa Fe, Texas – 10 dead, 13 injured)
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Republicans don’t seem to be as worried about curing the scourge of gun violence in the nation’s schools as they are about keeping the “wrong” books out of children’s hands.
It’s more important that children are alive so they can read than to shield them from the “wrong” books.
We’re all aware of the constitutional right to bear arms. But what about the right of a 9-year-old to come home safely each schoolday?
(Oct. 24, 2022, Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, St. Louis, Missouri – 3 dead, 7 injured)
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
The voices of parents around the country are getting louder. But so, too, are the voices of Republicans, with their inflexibility toward finding ways to solve this highly complex issue.
(Jan. 23, 2018, Marshall County High School, Marshall County, Kentucky – 2 dead, 18 injured)
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Last June, President Biden signed the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act,” which contained several significant gun safety provisions.
One of the Republicans who helped get the bill through Congress was Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.
After the latest school shooting in Tennessee, Cornyn was asked about moving forward with even stronger gun safety legislation.
He demurred.
“I would say we’ve gone about as far as we can go – unless somebody identifies some area that we didn’t address,” Cornyn said.
There’s certainly no shortage of Republicans who would like to get rid of TikTok, in their effort to help save the nation’s school kids.
TikTok may be bad. It may be evil. It may even be used by the Chinese Communist Party to snoop on our children.
But TikTok doesn’t do one thing. It doesn’t walk into any schools with loaded rifles, firing away.
(May 24, 2022 – Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, Texas – 22 dead, 18 injured)
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight, and 50-year TV news and newspaper veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.